Church of Peter and Paul
On one of the photos you can see the black sculpture on the pedestal outside of the church. That's Piotr Skarga, one of many modern, ugly things which seem to be put in random places, among old buildings, without paying any attention to the way the public space is used by people. Usually the sculptures depict John Paul II, (you might see samples here:
pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomniki_papie%C5%BCa_Jana_Paw%C5%82a_II
and next one is probably going to be thrown onto Wawel hill.
That's one of the dark sides of Polish town planning.
the photos from Plac Szczepański
First two show an art nouveau palace of the Associaton for the Friends of Art, the next two show the theatre. There is also great modern gallery there, called Bunkier Sztuki (Art Bunker).
piece of art camouflaged in the soot
Soot is not the biggest problem of Kraków buildings, more harm is being made by the acid rains.
What are the differences between German and Polish architecture ?
That actually depends of the region. The north of Poland has been deeply influenced by German construction style (the typical for the North brick nogged timber wall is even called the Prussian wall):
(yes, I know it's quite similar to the British half-timbering :) Gorgious samples can be seen in Gdansk, the old city there looks like old Anntwerp. Or Brughes :) )
Edward Konieczny is nominated to Mies van der Rohe award 2009
You got it right the second time. Robert Konieczny :)
He was also nominated for the World Architecture Festival Award worldarchitecturefestival.com/whatson_shortlist_crits_gallery.cfm?projectCategoryId=17 (the houses category featured the Irish Sleeping Giant as well, too bad none of them won).
rebuilt with the use of painting
Canaletto's (Bernardo Bellotto's) :)
Warsaw old city looked like that:
There is a nice exposition showing the old / new Warsaw called Miasto Feniksa - War*Saw Eyerything, the shots taken in 1944 during Warsaw Uprising were merged with the present views of the same streets:
kultura.wp.pl/gid,10208859,galeria.html?T
I don't even know where to start on Polish Architecture, I will need to come back to this topic in some spare moment. With the photos of medieval castles, Polish noblemen's manors (they are copied everywhere across the country and the results can be absolutely great - or truly miserable). With the old and new bridges - I totally love this one:
Warszawa, Most Świętokrzyski
... with Kraków I love, with Kazimierz nad Wisłą, with industrial £ódź and good and bad examples of rural houses...